No Olympic fanfare as Eldoret gears up for national trials next week

World Javelin Champion Julius Yego demonstrates his skills before emerging the best in the tournament with 78.86 points during the Athletic Track and Field event held at Kipchoge Stadium in Eldoret yesterday. 16.04.2016. Pictures By Peter Ochieng

The adrenaline levels are running high as the Rio Olympic national trials, the first to be held outside Nairobi since independence, fast approach.

Top guns are now tuning up their form ahead of the selections often billed as the toughest athletics selections in the world after the USA.

The showpiece puts to test the maxim on Eldoret as the undisputed 'City of Champions' –or, at best, the world's athletic superpower.

Just about every world beater in athletics, who readily comes to mind –from the legendary Kipchoge Keino to the reigning world 400m hurdles champion Nicholas Bett –calls this part of the country home.

This is where speed meets endurance; where budding athletes nurture their skills and where races are planned and executed with military precision.

Despite the top athletics event coming to Eldoret, there is hardly any glamour in town. No posters, no billboards or even road shows to market the historic event.

Buts the star athletes' parents, spouses and fans are gearing up for the two-day event.

David Kebenei, the father of three-time world 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, said he will lead his friends to Kipchoge Keino Stadium to cheer up his son.

"I will take breakfast and head straight to the stadium. I will give my son a pep talk before the race. I really want to see him qualify for the Olympics and perhaps, win a medal. He is capable of doing it," said Kebenei, fourth in 1,500m at the 1987 All Africa Games in Nairobi.

Kenyan trials are notorious for producing hitherto unknowns, who often treat established world-class stars with disdain and this cannot be ruled out during the selections.

Track and Field fans are unanimous that these trials –set for Thursday and Friday next week at the new-look Kipchoge Keino Stadium –will be the most competitive in recent times.

Joseph Boit, the father of world 400m hurdles champion Nicholas Bett, said he can't wait.

"I will cheer my two sons (Nicholas and Haroun, semi-finalist at the Beijing Worlds) at the trials. I pray for them to make the team," said Boit, former triple jumper and now serving as Athletics Kenya Uasin Gishu branch vice chairman.

The 24-year-old Bett, who set a national record of 47.79 in Beijing, is a traffic policeman based in Kisumu, while Koech is attached to police Anti-Stock theft Unit in Nakuru.

Two-time world and Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha, one of the three traffic police Chief Inspectors in Eldoret, will no doubt enjoy the moral support from his fellow officers at his work station.

Four-time world 3,000m steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi's sons, Dennis and Victor, the athletics die-hards who joined fans in Eldoret when Kemboi struck gold medal in Beijing last year, will also be in the stadium to cheer their father.

Pride swelled in their hearts as Kemboi led Conseslus Kipruto, Brimin Kipruto and Jairus Kipchoge Birech in a 1-2-3-4 sweep for Kenya.